Learn about the history of the iconic Charles City, Iowa Hart-Parr/Oliver/White tractor plant. Call 641-228-1099 or email fcmiowa@gmail.com if you have questions or want to learn more.
Something Edgar J Handy told me ,decades ago ; if you see "WF" on any casting , that Oliver/White casting in most cases ..... saw them for many years as I worked
Building big to get big failed ultimately and lost sight of what made great farm tractors and great farms and farmers namely an item with a lot less dead weight tonnage. Amazing to see the size of Tractors today tho very much a paen to what White starting with Oliver became. Definitely not what the US Tractor Industry in World War 2 was when you could buy a Ford 9n for $500.00 US Dollars. It was that market Asian Tractor manufacturers exploited with truly awesome success although John Deere now competes even with that market...competes and wins in that market actually. #ironic that huge tractors didn't work given what was going on in Brazil in the 1990s. Demand for massive ag machinery in Brazil is still basically unlimited today but only served ... yet again ... by John Deere. Presumably much the same will now play out in Africa, Australia, maybe even the Middle East. Someone will pick up these storied Brands again tho no different than Massey Furgeson of which no more of that survives upon in all of Great Britain. The Tractor Market in the USA has never been more strong than it is right now actually...new, used, refurbished, classic all doing way better than was true in the 1970s let alone 1980s and early 1990s. If the Federal Government would eliminate the crazy emissions regulations that continue to destroy both the US economy and US Trucking Industry now today that would allow for a thriving Industry to return in the US Tractor market as well. All these Brands need to do today to return as producers is produce a side by side for under $60,000 US Dollars actually let alone a 4 wheeler atv...maybe one even powered by a diesel dengine😮😮😮😮😮😮😮